Weak Safety Shuffle Technique in Solo Coverage

Uh oh...

Most who know me know I like the shuffle footwork for defensive backs (DB's).  I started using the shuffle about 2006 as a way to help my slow corners have an advantage against our competition, who was much, much faster than us.  Since then, the shuffle is all I've really used when coaching corners.  The technique really has allowed a lesser player to play the cornerback position and still be able to be effective against much better talent at wide receiver (WR).

Introduce Solo coverage, or as I was taught "Poach" coverage.  I learned this back in my early days of Quarters coverage.  I used it as my trips open check as an automatic.  The problem I always had with Solo was the weak safety (WS) and his ability to both get over the number three receiver vertical, and being able to come up and play the force player to the away side.  Sure, most times this player is into the boundary and our dear friend, the 12th player (the sideline) can help us out.  However, if you've had some of the athletes I've had to coach, over the past few years, you quickly realize you need some way of helping this kid out.  I had used both a flat-footed buzz technique (which is my standard footwork for a Quarters or Two Read safety), and backpedaling as the footwork technique.  I take to heart a lot of what the players tell me, as they are the one's who are having to execute the technique and perform.  Most of the players did not like the sit and buzz because they always felt late getting to the vertical of number three.  Secondly, they did not like to backpedal because they felt by the time they judged it was a run play, they were late forcing the football.  So what to do?

WS has an issue with leverage on both the vertical by #3 and being able to force.

A few years back, I started toying with shuffling the WS out at an angle, having him open to the number three receiver.  The kids caught on pretty quick and liked it much better than backpedaling or standing flat-footed.  The benefit is two-fold in this case.  The WS gets to open up to his pass key (number three), yet still can see the quarterback and EMOL to get his run reads.   If the number three receiver is vertical, the WS can get into better position using the shuffle because he opens in the direction of the number three receiver putting him closer to his assignment than if he would have simply backpedaled.  If the WS reads run, he can easily use the T-step, redirect and get back downhill to help force the run. 




By opening to #3 WS can easily read #3's intentions






By opening to #3 WS can still see his normal lane of ball read and redirect if necessary


You do need to tweak the alignment of the WS if you use the shuffle.  Originally I had the WS align in the away side A gap.  I felt this alignment allowed him to get to both assignments well, however the WS still was late forcing the run most of the time.  Anytime I tried moving him wider, then the number three receiver became a problem.  Once I tried shuffling, I was able to move my lesser athletic WS's to the B gap, and the more athletic one's to stacked over the away side OT. 




WS is too wide in normal alignment to account for #3 vertical




Something else, not related to WS technique, that can help with Solo coverage is having the read side LB work fast to wall number three and force this receiver to run a "bubble" when going vertical.  This gives the WS time to get a clear read and get to his assignment.  The LB has to work quickly to get to this route and at the very least help be in the throwing lane, especially vs. quick throws. 

Lastly, if you really like Solo coverage, mix in "Roll Solo" as well.  Roll is not a good coverage vs. four vertical routes, however, it is good against teams that run flood concepts with the number three receiver going vertical (instead of the standard of having number one take the top off the coverage).  Roll takes some pressure off of your WS because there is added help by the FS in this case.  Maybe that's for another article though...

Just something I tried and wanted to share with folks who may be experiencing the same issues I had when installing Solo coverage.  Solo is a very good coverage, but it does have it's weaknesses.  By utilizing a technique, I already was coaching my corners on, I was able to help out our WS's in Solo coverage.

Most of you are wrapping up spring practice, you've had your spring games and are looking ahead to the off-season.  However, some of you may still need some improvement.  Here's some great sites in my blog roll you need to check out!

Football is Life Blog Roll

Smart Football
Smart Football is a site I check daily.  The latest post on the Colts offense shows exactly why football coaches should use this site.  The attention to detail here is second to none. 

Gridnotes
Gridnotes is one of those gifts that keeps on giving.  It seems as if this site is updated daily.  Articles ranging from X's and O's to philosophy and tidbits that will make you a better coach grace the pages of this blog.  You can also find links to some of my long lost posts on there as well!  Great site chocked full of TONS of information on the great game of football.

Coach Hoover's Site
Coach Hoover, the master of creating and editing video has a great site with more links than I can possibly count.  Plenty of articles on drills as well as devotion and coaching philosophy can be found on Coach Hoover's site.  Plus...he's a Gator fan, what more could you want?!

Cripes, Get Back to Fundamentals
If you haven't found Brophy's site yet, you are missing out.  Cripes, Get Back to Fundamentals is the Mecca of a myriad of football information.  So stop lying around on a bean bag, naked, eating Cheetos, and get on the Internet to this site!  I guarantee you can burn up a couple of Saturdays doing nothing but reading old posts on here.  Good job Brophy!

If you are looking for good football knowledge, check out those sites, you won't go wrong there.  Well, I'm off for a bit, heading to enjoy my memorial day weekend.  Have fun, be safe and enjoy a cool one...





I hear Buffet playing...don't you?!


Duece

On Vacation...

Been on vacation, still struggling to get back in the groove of things, so bear with me on future blog posts.  Hopefully I can get my typing fingers back!  So in order to wet your whistle I'm going to give you some good links to check out.

Over at Smart Football there is a very good article on Combining the Shovel Option With a Sprintout Pass.  Good read on an age old concept made recently famous by our in-house favorites the Florida Gators!

Gridnotes is a great collection of articles, so much so you probably couldn't read them all in a day.  Please check these guys out as they have a great collection of a myriad of articles in all three facets of the game.  Keep up the good work over at Gridnotes, we all sure enjoy what ya'll are doing!

Coach Hoover has a good post on the Bench Wren blitz over at his site.  As usual Hoov's attention to detail is second to none!

Anyhow, don't expect too much too soon, the weather is great, and I may be temporarily detained on making any new posts for a while, however I do get bored easily...

Duece

Suggestions?

I was thinking, with the New Year ringing in, what suggestions would you have for the site?  I'm always interested in taking my audiences' temperature, so send me an email at footballislifeblog@yahoo.com and let me know what suggestions you have.  Currently I'm still working on the 3-4 defense and the single wing offense.  If you have any information you'd like to pass along, drop me an email.  Anyhow, here's some links to keep you going until my next post.

Here's a good post on the adaptation of the flexbone offense.  I think we are really seeing this offense coming into it's own, and there is no doubt the triple option has made its way back into the limelight of college football.  As always good link from Smart Football to Grantland.

Compete in all Things has a good post on the 3-4 defensive line.  If you're like me and trying to learn more about this defense, then you will want to read this post.  Also if you are like me, finding information on the 3-4 is like finding the Holy Grail!  Good post Mariner!

Coach Hoover really hits home with his latest piece on Tim Tebow.  I don't get all the haters our there, but to be honest, ol' Hoover goes into depth on what he believes is happening to the Denver Tebows...er...Broncos.  I think he's dead on with his opinion here, and I feel the EXACT same way.  Maybe I'm a little cynical, but I do believe in the power of belief, and I do believe that one person can make a difference.  Such is the way with the Broncos.  You cannot deny that the Broncos are not a changed football team.  What makes this even better, is how traditional NFL analysts cannot stand how he's able to be successful.  I also think there needs to be some kudos to head coach John Fox.  He at least had the wherewithal to start Tebow and give him a chance despite all the detractors.  Hey, desperate men sometimes do desperate things.  I hope the ride doesn't end with a few wins either, I'd like to see the Tebows playoff bound!!!  That would be a VERY nice Christmas gift for me.

For those that don't go to Gridnotes to find out your latest update on all your favorite football blogs...GET YOUR FRIGGIN' HEAD CHECKED!!!!!  What a great setup over there.  You can find whatever you need, whenever you want it, and the site is cleanly done, hats off bro, I'll drink a Sam Adams for ya!  Great site, please check it out for all your information needs.  There's great links to articles I frequently check out.  No more searching through this blog or that, all blog posts are referenced and easy to find, again...hats off!

Spread football is at it again with some very useful Air Raid powerpoints.  I'm learning this Air Raid stuff daily, and have "overnight" become a Mike Leach fan (who'd have figured right?).  Take a look at these powerpoints, good stuff and well worth the read!

Well, this is probably the last post before the big day, so to all Happy Holidays, and have a very Happy New Year!!!!




Don't forget the Juice!


P.S. don't forget to follow me on Twitter @theduece02. 

Duece

Withdrawls!!!!!

Now that the Huey site is down, I'm having withdrawals!  It's amazing how much I check that board, but then again, it's amazing how much I love to talk football.  It's amazing how much sites like that have changed football is just the last five years.  Where would we be without those sites?  Kinda hard to imagine isn't it?

So, enough with my little rant, been doing some research here recently and came across some good sites, thought I'd share them with you guys.  The first is Runcodhit football.  This site is not new, and is one I've mentioned on here numerous times.  However, he's back up and running and has a great post on defending trips formations while disguising your coverage.

Gridnotes is a site I check often, and to be honest it's how I found a lot of the blogs and sites I share on here.  This is a listing of all new blog posts, and they do a very good job of it.  Check them out, as they've been up and running here for several months and they are just splitting at the seams with a wealth of football information.

Since starting to coach youth football again, I've leaned towards those sites, and one I've found to be very handy is Dumcoach.  Doesn't sound like much of a name, but it's a very good site, similar to the Huey site.  If you are a youth coach, tired of rubbing elbows with high school and college or semi-pro coaches, then go to Dumcoach, you won't be disappointed.

Footballcoach360 is a site I got from Gridnotes, and is a very interesting site.  What I really like is the amount of video on this site, as I am very much a visual learner.  This site has excellent drills broken down by position to aid you in finding drills to help train your players.  Check them out, and thanks to Gridnotes for posting.

Another good site, also provided to me by Gridnotes, is Full Throttle Coaching Solutions.  This site is very similar to Footballcoach360 and has tons of instructional video to go along with some very good "how" and "why" posts on scheme and philosophy. 

In my single wing research I have come across some good sites as well.  The first is Direct Snap Football.  This all informative blog on the "oldie but goodie" single wing and direct snap offenses has been very informative.  The other one, is a site similar to the Huey board and that is the Delphi Single Wing Forum.  For those of you who do not know much about the offense and would like to know more, these two sites are great places to start.  I will say, I don't care for the Delphi site's setup as it does not appear user friendly and has a page full of ads, but the advice and coaching knowledge on the single wing and direct snap offenses presented there is second to none.

Hopefully the Huey site will be up and running soon, I'm really beginning to go out of my mind not being able to check in there!  Good luck, we have two more games, and it's the off-season for me!!!!

Duece

Paid to Play? Why This Concept Will Ruin College Football



It's all about the Benjamin's baby...


I recently read an article on this topic at Smart Football (which is a great site, even though I'm completely dissing the idea behind one of the posts over there) and it got me to thinking, where are our morals?  Deep question, I know, remember I have LARGE amounts of free time on my hands here lately, so I do a lot of thinking...probably too much.  Anyhow, I don't see how advocates of a revenue sharing plan for College Football don't see the down side to their ways.  So I wanted to share the other side of the coin, the moral one.  I know this is a touchy subject and I will probably be blasted in the comments section, but you know what...I don't care!  This is my opinion on why College Football players should not be paid to play the game of football.

What really got me burned about this idea was the similarity that the topic has with government spending.  I know, I'm crazy right?!  Anyhow, as most know, I don't teach, I own my own business and part of what I do is site development.  Where I live, there has been a recent influx of public housing.  Being conservative, I'd rather have a hole drilled in my head than do anything with public housing.  However, we all gotta eat right?  Right!  I recently had a conversation with the head investor of one of these projects, and his attitude about public money, blew me away.  He was bitching about the fact that in Florida, Governor Rick Scott is making Welfare recipients comply with random drug tests to comply for the social service.  He was also griping about the Arizona Immigration Laws and how laws like these were taking money out of his pocket because it made it more difficult to find tenants for his low-income housing.  To move ahead in my story, the last comment he left me with was "If the government's willing to give this money away, I might as well get my share."  Where is the morality in this country anymore?  This is what ties in to what I'm trying to get across to you about the paying of amateur athletes in collegiate sports.  This idea that because the universities make so much money on the sports, that the athlete must be entitled to some of it, is ridiculous, and frankly it disgusts me.  Now let me elaborate.

Not one single college athlete has EVER been forced to participate in their sport.  NONE!  I would be willing to bet that all of them knew going in to collegiate athletics meant they were amateur athletes.  However, they DID know that they were getting their education paid for, by the institution they played for as a return for their services so to speak.  One of the most invaluable items we have in this country is a college education, yet we now have college athletes who want a bigger piece of the pie, with the attitude like the investor in the above conversation.  Why is this?  The answer, is easy, as it is one of the seven deadly sins....ENVY.  College athletes envy the money the universities they play for generate.  This is the same premise that liberals claim large corporations are greedy, and that they should give some of their money to the less fortunate.  This idea that it is somehow a crime in this country to make a profit AND KEEP IT has become what many call "greed".  Frankly, it's bullshit.  The institutions have provided a place for this athlete to not only perform, but to get better, as most have state-of-the-art training facilities to go along with some of the top facilities in the nation.  The other item, so often overlooked in this discussion, is the fact that these same "greedy" institutions provide these athletes with some of the land's top facilities in which to get something to which a monetary value need not be applied, and that's a college education.




Envy leads to Wrath


The liberal idea that profit is bad or evil rings ever so true in this argument.  However, look around you, this argument as killed this country we call America.  Between unions, and social programs, the ideas that this country was founded upon, have eroded and drifted away in the breeze.  The car you paid $35,000 for, probably only has around $15,000 in materials in it.  The auto worker's unions have pirated and pillaged the coffers of the auto companies to the point they nearly closed these companies down.  Look in your local newspaper and read every day, some where in this country, some social program is closing, or cutting it's numbers, or government employees are being laid off etc.  The reason, the socialist system does not work is eventually the payer runs out of money due to the greed of the payee.  How is paying college athletes any different?  There are a lot of similarities to the two ideas, think about them.




Bail em' out boys!


Then there is the overall attitude of the game.  Watch a college game on Saturdays and study the players and the coaches.  Then watch it on Sunday and do the same thing.  They are NOT the same.  The players on Saturday, play with a passion and aggression that is unparalleled in Pro Football.  This is even more evident in the argument between College Basketball and Pro Basketball.  At least in the collegiate game, they play defense.  Pro Basketball is nothing more than "Look at me, I get millions to play street ball".  I can't stand professional sports, because at the end of the day, the athlete gets paid, so winning and performing at the best of one's ability takes a backseat to Bentley's and Benjamin's.  I would advocate a performance based payment system for professional athletes, if I had my way (In Dueceland) where like most of us, if we don't do our job, we don't get paid.  So that defensive tackle who got blown out of the B gap on the goal line for a touchdown, doesn't get paid for his screw up.  I think you'd see the face of the game change a bit.  I know, I'm sick, I need help, and the game will only be played this way in Dueceland, but hey, that's what dreams are for.




Wonder how he did today?


In summary, if you pay college athletes, you destroy the game.  I do think there could be a happy medium here, but in all likeliness, it won't be anywhere near this.  I wonder if we will have college lockouts if they institute a "pay to play" system?  I think the advancement of the game, should be left on the field and in the coach's office, not in the pocket book of the players.  Remember, nobody made them sign that scholarship....

I don't normally have posts like this, but something sorta snapped this morning when reading Smart Football's article after reading what a joke of a deal our lawmakers struck over the weekend on the nation's debt.  That with the mounting fact that Washington D.C. could float into the Atlantic and I wouldn't give a shit, got me to typing.  I will try to stay away from posts like these in the future, and I kinda feel like Jerry McGuire when he wrote his mission statement.  Hopefully I don't run off too many people by writing an opinion post.

In other news, Smart Football has a great post about a man few understand.  Mike Leach's book, Swing Your Sword has created waves among coaches and there is a great article about it that can be found here.  Good article on what appears to be something I'm adding to my birthday wish list!  Leach was and is a great innovator of the game, I have heard nothing but good reviews about this book and look forward to reading it.

Brophy has a good post on Unbreakable Fire Zones.  Manny Diaz's concepts are growing in popularity, as can be seen in this post from Coach Hoover.  Two very good reads if you are into FZ concepts and keeping things simple and adjustable.  Good job guys!

Coach Hoover's latest post is one of the best blog reads I've had in a while.  It is a very in-depth article on something known as the Peter Principle.  After reading this, I can finally rank myself in the victim column of just such a principle.  Now I know why I can't stand stupid people!  Anyhow, a great read by a great mind in football, good job Coach Hoover.


Over at The 3 Back Option Football Spot is a great link to Coach Iannuci's quarterback manual.  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I bought this manual, and I can tell you READ IT!  I only thought I understood the option quarterback.  This manual will aid you in not only teaching your option quarterback, but developing him to be the "dealer" on the field you need him to be.  Please check out Coach Iannuci's blog, if you are triple option guy like me, you'll LOVE IT.




In other words...when Moby Dick was a minnow!


If you haven't checked out Gridnotes, you are missing out.  With so many bloggers out there, information can become hard to find.  Check out Gridnotes and get a summarized view of each article along with links to the full article, as well as categorized links to aid in finding just the right tidbit of information you are looking for.  It's in my favorites, what are you waiting for???

Lastly, Coach Hoover had a link to Becoming a Man for All Seasons, which is yet another very informative blog I think you should read.  Very good reads on a wide variety of topic, from the technical to the theoretical and even motivational. 

Still waiting to hear if I'm going to be a DC for a local junior high or not.  Don't know how to feel about it, as once again I'm helping a friend and that didn't get me too far the first time.  Anyhow, I guess it's coaching though right.  Season is upon us, free agency is maddening and we are going to have an NFL season after all.  Hang in there boys, football's right around the corner!




I'm ready for football dammit!!!!


Duece